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November 2010 e-newsletter
Welcome Jessica Rivera & Julian Kuerti
In this issue
Julian Kuerti to the rescue
Jessica Rivera's creative collaborations
Alessio Bax: four hands across Canada
Stefan Jackiw gets Brahms CD airplay
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Datebook

Nov. 3; Chicago, IL

Inon Barnatan

Dame Myra Hess Concerts

Recital & WFMT broadcast

 

Nov. 5: New York, NY

Alessio Bax

Metropolitan Museum of Art

NY debut recital

 

Nov. 5-6: Glen Ellyn, IL

Joshua Roman

New Philharmonic

Dvorak: Cello Cto.


Nov. 6: Tel Aviv, Israel

Joyce Yang

Israel Camerata Orchestra

Beethoven: Piano Cto. 3


Nov. 8: Madison, NJ

Inon Barnatan
Drew University

Sheng, Arensky


Nov. 8: Dallas, TX

Alessio Bax

Meadows Symphony

Rach: Rhapsody...Paganini


Nov. 9: New York, NY

Inon Barnatan

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Sheng, Arensky


Nov. 9: New York, NY

James Valenti

Ten O'Clock Classics Gala

Guest artist


Nov. 13: Winter Park, FL

Brooklyn Rider

Bach Festival Society
C. Jacobson, Cage, Dvorak+


Nov. 14: New York, NY

James Valenti

Richard Tucker Gala

Avery Fisher Hall

2010 Award Winner


Nov. 14: Bangor, ME

Stefan Jackiw

Bangor Symphony

Sibelius: Violin Cto.

 

Nov. 14: New York, NY

Alessio Bax

Chamber Music Society

of Lincoln Center

Emmanuel, Poulenc


Nov. 15: New York, NY
Alessio Bax
WNYC Gala

With Anne Akiko Meyers;

Alec Baldwin & Ira Glass

co-hosts


Nov. 16: Salt Lake City, UT
Alessio Bax
U. of Utah Virtuoso Series

Bach, Bartok, Granados+


Nov. 17: Salt Lake City, UT
Alessio Bax
Gina Bachauer Fund
In-School Residency


Nov. 17: Santa Fe, NM

Joyce Yang

Santa Fe Chamber Festival

Private event

 

Nov. 18-19: Ottawa, ON
Julian Kuerti
National Arts Centre

Orchestra

Bach, Stravinsky, Dvorak

Nov. 19: Santa Fe, NM

Stefan Jackiw

St. John's College Recital

Mozart, Copland, Brahms+

 

Nov. 19: Lexington, KY

Inon Barnatan
Lexington Philharmonic

Mozart: Piano Cto. No. 22


Nov. 20: Kansas City, MO
Alessio Bax
Harriman-Jewell Series

Brahms, Bartok, Ravel+


Nov. 20-Dec. 7: Tour
Inon Barnatan

Netherlands and Italy

with Liza Ferschtman

Nov. 20: Bartlesville, OK

Joshua Roman

Bartlesville Symphony

Dvorak: Cello Cto.


Nov. 21: Chelsea, NY
Joyce Yang

Howland Chamber Music

Circle

Dvorak Piano Quintet No. 2


Nov. 21: Vancouver, BC
Stefan Jackiw
Vancouver Recital Society
with Max Levinson


Nov. 23: Houston, TX
Jessica Rivera

Houston Symphony
L. Siegel: Kaddish

Nov. 25, 26: Seoul, S. Korea

Joyce Yang

Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra

Prokofiev: Piano Cto No. 3

 

Dec. 2: New York, NY

Alessio Bax

Chamber Music Society

of Lincoln Center

Adams, Jalbert


Dec. 3: San Francisco, CA
Jessica Rivera
San Francisco Symphony

Adams: El Ni�o


Dec. 4: Vancouver, ON
Julian Kuerti

Vancouver Symphony
Stravinsky, Mozart, Schumann+


Dec. 4-12: Manitoba, Saskatchewan

Alessio Bax

Prairie Debut Tour II

with Lucille Chung

Dec. 13: Philadelphia, PA
Inon Barnatan
Philadelphia Chamber Society
with Alisa Weilerstein

 
Julian Kuerti to the rescue

Julian Kuerti

"Stunning debuts of last-minute replacements are often the stuff of legend, such as conductor Leonard Bernstein's debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943," waxed the Cincinnati Enquirer's critic about Julian Kuerti's debut with the Cincinnati Symphony when he replaced Paavo J�rvi in April. "There was clearly chemistry happening onstage, and the musicians performed magnificently for him." Kuerti also jumped in on short notice to open the L.A. Chamber Orchestra's season. "Kahane selected a first-rate conductor to step in for him," noted the Los Angeles Times. Following fall concerts with the symphonies of New Jersey, Toledo, and Chile, the young Canadian conductor now heads to Ottawa to lead the National Arts Center Orchestra (Nov. 18/19). 

 

On the road to the podium, Kuerti earned an honors degree in engineering and physics, was concertmaster in various Canadian orchestras, toured Brazil with a world music band, and spent two summers as a conducting fellow at Tanglewood.  In August, he completed three years as the Boston Symphony's assistant conductor, a tenure that included an unscheduled concert with his father, the famed pianist Anton Kuerti, who substituted in an eleventh-hour cancellation. Read the story in Symphony magazine's Sept/Oct issue.  

 

Season debuts for Julian Kuerti:

  • Dec. 4:        Vancouver Symphony, BC:
                        Mozart, Schumann, Rimsky-K, Stravinsky
  • Jan. 20-22:  Rochester Philharmonic: 
                        Messiaen, Prokofiev, Beethoven
  • Jan. 30:       Seattle Symphony:
                        Smetana, Mendelssohn, Dvorak
  • Feb. 10-12:  St. Paul Chamber Orchestra:
                        Ravel, Britten, Schoenberg
  • Mar. 9:         Orchestre Symphonique de Qu�bec:
                        Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler+
  • Apr. 9:          New York City Opera:
                         Knussen: Where the Wild Things Are
  • Apr. 21-23:   Atlanta Symphony: Mendelssohn,
                         Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Wagner


For more information about Julian Kuerti, visit the IMG Artists web site.


Jessica Rivera's creative collaborations
 

Jessica RiveraAfter the Edinburgh Festival this summer, and before her Brazil debut singing the role of Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar, soprano Jessica Rivera traveled across Spain in the footsteps of the opera's subject, poet Federico Garcia Lorca. This "research trip" to learn more and deepen her portrayals is just part of what makes Rivera a favorite of today's leading composers, such as Golijov, John Adams, and Nico Muhly. When asked what her art is about, she answers simply, "I want to move people."  And so she does, while collaborating with the likes of conductors Robert Spano, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir Simon Rattle

 

The young Californian's discography includes Golijov's Grammy Award-winning Ainadamar with the Atlanta Symphony and Le Pasi�n seg�n Marcos with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (both for Deutsche Grammophon), Poulenc with the Chicago Symphony, Vaughan Williams with Atlanta (Telarc), John Adams's A Flowering Tree with the London Symphony (Nonesuch), and his Doctor Atomic with Netherlands Opera on DVD (BBC/Pro Arte), in which she sings the role of Kitty Oppenheimer. 


Jessica Rivera's season highlights:

  • Nov. 23:         Houston Symphony: L. Siegel: Kaddish
  • Dec. 3:           San Francisco Symphony:
                          Adams: El Ni�o
  • Feb. 2-19:      Met Opera: Adams: Nixon in China
                          Pat Nixon cover
  • Mar. 10, 12:   Cleveland Orchestra [debut]
                          Dvorak: Te Deum; Mahler: Sym. 4
  • Mar. 29:         Zankel Hall Recital, NYC:
                          Debussy, Schumann, Mark Grey:

                          Fire Angels
    (Carnegie Hall   
                          co-commission)
  • Apr. 3:           CAL Performances Recital, Berkeley, CA
                         (See March 29)
  • Apr. 24:          Kimmel Center, Philadelphia: Jonathan
                          Leshnoff: Hope: An Oratorio (World           
                          Premiere)
  • May 19-22:    Atlanta Symphony: Britten: Spring
                          Symphony 

F
or more information, visit JessicaRivera.com or the IMG Artists web site

Alessio Bax: four hands across Canada

Alessio BaxPianist Alessio Bax almost didn't make it back for his NY debut recital at the Metropolitan Museum last week. He and his wife, pianist Lucille Chung, were on the first leg of a 30-concert Prairie Debut tour when their car got stuck on an icy cliff at night in a remote corner of Saskatchewan.  Luckily the Italian pianist steers with the same elegant touch he brings to the keyboard. Read Bax's blog entries about playing classical music in venues large and small across Canada, fueled by moose steaks for breakfast. 

 

Bax's travels continue this month, with a concert at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Nov. 14), where he is in the second year of his CMS Two residency, an appearance with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers at WNYC's Nov. 15 Gala, and recitals in Salt Lake City (Nov. 16) and Kansas City (Nov. 20).  Read Dilettante Music's profile of the busy pianist: "On the Road: Alessio Bax". 

 

"Of all the terms that could describe a pianist's work, 'rightness' is probably among the least precise. Yet again and again as Alessio Bax performed at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday night, everything in his program unfolded with an ease, precision and beauty so seemingly effortless that the music appeared to live and breathe of its own volition ... Mr. Bax, who counts a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant among his numerous awards and accolades, is worth getting excited about."  - New York Times, 11/8/10 [Steve Smith]

 

 

For more information, visit AlessioBax.com or the Barrett Vantage Artists web site.



Stefan Jackiw gets Brahms CD airplay


Stefan JackiwGood news for CD collectors:  Stefan Jackiw's Sony recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas, released digitally last spring on iTunes, is now available in the States via the invaluable online classical music retailer ArkivMusic. While spotlighting the Boston native's CD last week, WGBH host Cathy Fuller spoke of the lustrous, haunting world that Jackiw and pianist Max Levinson inhabit in their music making. The disc is earning airplay on classical stations across the country. 


The 25-year-old violinist enjoyed a musical homecoming last month with the Baltimore SymphonyBaltimore Sun critic Tim Smith says it all: "The soloist was a BSO favorite, Stefan Jackiw, who made his debut with the orchestra eight years ago at the age of 17. He struck me then as a violinist with a future, and I'm still impressed with the purity and sweetness of his tone - he knows how to make a violin 'sing' naturally, eloquently - and his unaffected way of sculpting a phrase ... The radiant quality of Jackiw's playing provided consistent pleasure throughout the work, and his exquisite performance enjoyed sensitive support from Alsop and the orchestra."

 

Watch Jackiw play a favorite encore: Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor


 

For more information, visit StefanJackiw.com or the Opus 3 Artists web site.

 

 

 

Photos: Dario Acosta (Kuerti), Ken Howard (Rivera), Lisa-Marie Mazzucco (Bax), Lisa-Marie Mazzucco (Jackiw)

About 21C Artists To Watch
21C Artists To Watch is an image- and awareness-building program for artists on the brink of major careers in classical music.  Each month, 21C Media Group publishes an e-newsletter profiling several members of this select group and highlighting their recent and upcoming activities.
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